


Cordite (a parting in Sagada)

by cincave



Category: Gaya Sa Pelikula (Web Series)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28433499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cincave/pseuds/cincave
Summary: He left you.Then you returned to him.
Relationships: Karl Frederick Almasen/Jose Vladimir Austria
Kudos: 6





	Cordite (a parting in Sagada)

Art by the lovely [Elliot](https://twitter.com/_otelli).

He left you in Sagada.

He waited for you to enter the room that you were both staying at and then shot you in the leg with his favorite revolver.

When you stared down the barrel of that gun, you knew that the two of you were over.

Love, or whatever facsimile of it, has always been an expensive luxury in this business. You've seen Karl hit a bullseye from fifty paces with that damned revolver. So, you know that this missed shot that hit your leg meant _I love you enough not to kill you._

He packed up his gun, his clothes, his passports and his life into his suitcase, looked at you one last time, bleeding uselessly on the floor before he stepped out the door.

He left you with a hole in your leg and an even bigger hole in your heart.

Eventually, the gun wound healed. And in a truly and spectacularly horrible lapse in judgment, you decided to get a shitty tattoo over it.

Sue, your gigantic troll of a bestfriend, still has a video of you, drunk out of your skull, crying _arki arki arki_ into the tattoo chair while the needle whirred and tried to cover up your pain.

And yet, somehow, years later, he is here in front of you.

Older. Harder. Definitely meaner.

And still so goddamn beautiful.

You feel that familiar urge again. To do something stupid to get him to be yours always. You wonder if this is what Terengati felt when he journeyed through skies and mountains to find his wife again.

He is staring at you. In the quiet stillness of this lake, he is staring at you.

The question is written on his face, the same one he asked all those years ago.

_Ipaglalaban mo ba tayo?_

The water parts as you make your way to him. There are no guns, no phones to call in drone support, no hidden knives. Just you and him, naked in this lake under the moon.

You take his hand and press his fingers into your scar-under-your-tattoo, letting him know that he is still with you.

Because the hole in your leg might have healed but the hole in your heart never did.

It's always been Karl.

It's always been him.

Ate Judit always told you _never kiss the mark_. Kissing is one of the most vulnerable things you can do. It closes the eyes and exposes the throat.

But you've always blind, deaf and stupid when it comes to Karl.

So, you close your eyes, you tune out the night and you focus your mind on nothing but how his skin feels on yours.

You kiss him.

And, by the stars, he kisses back.

It is hungry, vicious like he is in all things he does. Yet achingly tender when he softly kisses the corner of your lips as if showing you that he is not all hard edges.

You take pride in the fact that you are, perhaps, the only person left alive to know that Karl Almasen has a tender side.

He whispers your name in your ear and you cannot help but try to press more of your skin to his.

As if time has owed you a great debt of Karl's touch and you are now coming to collect. He kisses you, once more, on the lips, on your cheek before he pulls back and asks the question again.

_Ipaglalaban mo ba tayo?_

You failed all those years ago. You didn't answer the question which was an answer in and of itself. But now, you look back at him, steady and sniper-certain.

And with the smell of fresh water and cordite that always seems to cling to him, you press your lips against his and say yes.


End file.
